A Different Perspective: The Problems of the Philippine Society Part 1

In 2007 and in preparation for the then upcoming senatorial elections, GMA News and Public Affairs discussed in eight consecutive Sundays the eight major problems of the Philippines. Hosted by five of the most respected broadcast journalists in the country, the goal of Philippine Agenda was to serve as an awareness campaign to its viewers of the challenges the new government should face as these officials swear their oath of office. GMA News highlighted these eight problems of the Philippine society:

1. Education
2. Health Care
3. Corruption
4. Housing
5. Employment
6. Hunger
7. Crime and Justice
8. Electoral reform

In three years though, none of these have found resolution. So far all of our elected officials have simply provided us patchwork solutions and workarounds without addressing the real deal.

I am no sociologist nor am I a media practitioner. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the problems that ordinary Filipinos face day in and day out. My objective in this series of posts is to present an alternative view of why our country has gone so low and offer a way for our country to get up on its feet once more to future leaders.

But seriously, what do I think are the most important problems our country needs addressed? A quote often attributed to the late great American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson goes, "Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny." The most important problem our country has is ourselves.

True, we can blame Spain and the 333 years of Spanish rule. Or the Americans who continue to dominate our government--our society--even up to this very day. But have we put all biases aside and looked at ourselves for a change?

In the early Philippines, people lived together in a society that promotes sharing not owning. The Filipino word for real estate or property, ari-arian, signifies lack of real ownership as any word in Tagalog derived from repeating the base word and suffixed with an implies untruth. A good example is the word, bahay-bahayan, when translated in English means "playing house" in contrast to the word bahay which means "a real house". Therefore ari-arian implies "I do not really own this property," as the word ari means property, something that is personal. When transliterated, it actually means "someone's privates".

This concept of shared ownership reveals the fact that Filipinos are spaceless individuals. Before the Spanish conquest, a free man who owns a piece of property is entitled to the all fruits produced by his land, but his neighbors may sow seeds on unused land and even harvest from his plants.

Our problem with individuals who illegally setup their residences on the side of roads or on unused but not necessarily unowned lands is caused by this fact. As spaceless individuals, Filipinos also tend to break the rules of traffic by using up a portion of the road for birthday parties, parades and even parking space causing severe congestion in roads normally used by public utility vehicles. But the fact remains that things have changed and the concept of public or shared ownership is no longer a reality in today's world. A piece of land does not mean it is ready to be settled in by illegal settlers if unused or unoccupied.

As we address this issue of spacelessness, another issue of why these illegal settlers have made their homes illegally crops up--that of employment and prosperity in the Metro. But of course, that is for another post.

credits to Shine for the picture.

Sunday Christians

It's a sad fact that many Christians can only be holy during Sundays. Is holiness affected by the day of the week? Or is it just that Christians want to appear righteous before others in church?

True, it is expected for Christians to always be on their toes, to serve as salt and light to a world that knows not of Christ and His gift of salvation to man. But we are all human. We commit mistakes, whether we like it or not. Whether we are aware or not. While we want to preserve how other people look at us, we deny this fact. Actually, we are denying the truth that were it not for Jesus, we would not have been saved.

Does that mean that we should go on living in sin? That is not my point. We have to do the best that we can and live the way we should live--in Christ--but we should not be punished by fellow Christians should we fall. And we should practice becoming Christians in everywhere we go so we can truly be the salt and light God has commissioned us to be.

Mang Meliton and His Unselfish Act of Kindness

In the University of the Philippines, different forms of financial help are available to students. One such form of financial help is through student loans. A guarantor is required for a loan borrowed from the University. At the end of the semester, if the student is unable to pay up, the guarantor has to pay for the loan. Any UP employee could serve as a guarantor, but it is usually college teachers and professors who students are able to convince.

Recently, a poignant story is finding its way through blogs. It's a story of a graduating student who was guaranteed by a janitor named Mang Meliton. Here's how the story goes: she needed to enroll her last three subjects to be eligible for graduation, but her parents didn't have the money to support her last semester. Hoping for help from her college professors, she opted for a student loan. But her professors either refused or were not yet eligible. After two weeks of searching for a guarantor, she only had 24 hours left to pay for her matriculation. She felt devastated. Alone, she cried her heart out in the lobby of the College of Arts and Sciences building named Palma Hall (AS, for students of the University). Mop in hand, Mang Meliton approached her and asked why she was crying. The student told him her problem. He simply replied, "Puwede ako pumirma, empleyado ako ng UP." He took the forms and signed them. Mang Meliton was her savior. At the end of the semester, she fulfilled her end of the deal and paid for the loan.

The story does not end there, however. Mang Meliton recently retired only to find that he was only paid for 171 days out of those 45 years of serving the University faithfully. And the reason for that, was because there were students who were unable to pay up for their loans, hence, because he served as a guarantor, he paid for their debts.

For more of this, please visit:

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/144542/The-unlikely-heroism-of-Mang-Meliton

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=432091&publicationSubCategoryId=64

I am writing about this today in my blog as an appeal to fellow alumni and help one of the most noble retirees of our beloved University.

Ex Deo Scientia is PageRank 2

Readers will be glad to know that my new blog now has PageRank. Ex Deo Scientia, after only one month, has been granted PageRank 2! The same goes for my eleven-month old blog, 4ever7 Heaven. Thanks everybody!

Busy

I have to break the news. I was promoted. While people say I should be happy, the truth is I am scared. I have so many things to do, so many things to prove. It's tough when people expect so much from you and you know you can't deliver.

My life has been through a lot, I should say, during the last month. And that was the reason why I have not been posting much, to this blog and my other.

Videoke Mania

Filipinos have this really irritating habit of turning up the volume of music for most of the audio-video equipment we have--TV sets, DVD players, components, and yes, the most notorious is the videoke machine or magic sing. I have no idea why we do that.

Last Christmas, one of my neighbors held a party that lasted all day and all night, ending at almost 5:00 AM. They were drinking, and smoking and singing their hearts out to some fancy music from a videoke machine. Being a singer myself, I should have appreciated the event. Unfortunately, I did not. They were singing off-key--a couple even trying their luck in reaching the really high-registered notes, and most of the time failing to strike them perfect. The worst part of it was that they were singing and creating noises, with everyone in the block hearing, thanks to the loud volume of their microphones.

But the story does not end there. Just a few days later, other neighbors started doing the same. In the spirit of merrymaking, they seemed to have forgotten about the other people in the village.

Isn't it enough to just let the music stay within the confines and the four walls of your own house? What could we possibly accomplish by letting other people hear our lousy singing?

Supporting Filipino Animators

In theaters this December is an animated film entitled Dayo: Sa Mundo ng Elementalia. It is the first all-digital full-length Filipino animated feature film by Cutting Edge Productions, and a budget of no less than PhP 58 million was used in the film's production. Over 500 animators were involved in the project that combined 2D and 3D paperless animation. Two years in the making, the project cast some of the most respectable names in the entertainment industry: Michael V., Peque Gallaga, Noel Trinidad, Nova Villa and Johnny Delgado. It stars child star Nash Aguas as Buboy, a boy out to find his abducted grandparents in the land of Elementalia. Broadway superstar Lea Salonga sang the theme song of the movie, Lipad. Dayo was also given a grade of "A" by the Cinema Evaluation Board. Such a rating allowed the producers a 100% amusement tax rebate.

Despite the effort in marketing the movie to its intended young audience, the numerous sponsors involved in the movie, the endorsements from the CEB and the Department of Education (DepEd) the film did not do very well in the box office. To date, the film is seventh in rank among the eight entries in the Metro Manila Film festival. True, there are some flaws in the animation, but no one can deny the fact that the movie is worthy of praise and as such, is a breakthrough.

Animation in the Philippines has taken a stall, not because we lack animators, but because Filipinos do not take the effort to help out the industry. A couple of months back, another animated film released by APT Productions, Urduja, suffered the same fate. We have very good animators and artists, but will they forever serve foreign animation studios because their countrymen do not recognize their talents and support their works?

On the other hand, Korean animation is seeing a lot of support from viewers all over the world. The quality of their work now is comparable to major animation studios Disney, Warner Brothers, Pixar, Toei and Studio Ghibli. But just a couple of years ago, Japanese animation, or animé, was being outsourced to Korea because of the volume that the Japanese animators were getting. Soon, even the big American networks, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney, were turning to the Koreans. The Koreans learned from the experience and put up their own studios. Now, Korea is proud to have produced animated series like Jang Geum's Dream and I'm Sorry I Love You.

Philippine animation will never progress unless we help out the industry. Our animators will be forever slaves, and not masters, if we do not support this dying industry.

Never Too Busy for God

There are twenty four hours in a day. Have you thought about how many hours do you actually spend for yourself? Just think: eight hours for sleep, eight hours for work, at least two hours for travel, three or four hours for recreation and two more hours for grooming--a total of almost twenty four hours as well.

But have you stopped to think about how long you have spent talking to God?

If we are to give our tithes to God for the time he has given us to spend, 2.4 hours should be devoted each day just for Him. Will the minutes we spend praying for our food, for ourselves, for our travel, for our loved ones, for praising Him and asking forgiveness for the sins we have done and for thanking Him for all He has done for us, add up to that?

Martin Luther once said, "I'm so busy today that I'll spend my first three hours in prayer." Regardless of how long we are to speak to God in prayer, let's take the time to talk and ask.

Christmas and Jesus

There is only one reason why we celebrate Christmas.

Christmas is not about the giving. Not about the giver, nor about the gifts we give. Not about peace on earth and goodwill to men. Definitely not about Santa Claus, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, King Wenceslas, or even the Magi--ideas that highly creative advertising and marketing individuals have devised to keep people shopping for expensive gifts each year.

Christmas is not about these things which we have for so long thought to be the reason why we celebrate the occasion.

Christmas is about Jesus.

Think about what life would be without Jesus. No hope for redemption from sin and death. No contentment or joy despite the chaos in this world. No salvation from eternal damnation.

Christmas is a tale of love, of sacrifice, of being selfless. Had God not given his only begotten Son to the world, there would be no reason to celebrate the season. But He gave Jesus, not to be worshipped by men, but rather to be killed for their sins and to serve as the sacrificial lamb by Whom salvation will be known by all.

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16, New International Version

Do you know Jesus? He knows about you. He cares about you. This Christmas, let's focus on the reason why we had the season in the first place. Get to know the reason for the season in your life.

From God, Knowledge

Contrary to popular opinion, science and God do not conflict. Several Bibilical passages actually describe phenomena that people thought only science could explain--the water cycle, that the Earth floats in space, ocean currents, entropy, thermodynamics.

Science comes from the Latin word scientia which translates to knowledge. True enough, science claims it is the source of all knowledge in the world. What we know of the world, how it works, how it was created, how will it end, is all described and defined in terms of scientific and mathematical expressions and theories. Even documenting the world's population, creating a record of man's history, or explaining the rationale behind behaviors are now considered aspects of science.

Man by nature is taken by curiosity by the things around him. But if man were not created to be so, nothing in the world would fascinate him and inspire him to make discoveries of his own. Thank goodness man was made in the image of God--thinking, curious, rational.